Baja: Free Time

After our home visits, we had a free afternoon and evening. For lunch, we returned to the fish taco stand. There is also a shrimp taco stand, not too far away, but I wasn’t able to try one this time around.

Next door, a guy was making a fresh batch of chicharrones. One of our team members bought a bag and shared, but we declined.

Just around the corner is an outdoor market where people sell trinkets and souvenirs.

D and I bought a couple of hacky sacks for the kids and a swordfish figurine that now resides in our kitchen.

The kids here are very aggressive about trying to get you to buy things. They were following us around with puppy dog eyes.

Our final stop was for paletas. D and I shared a coconut-chocolate dipped-peanut one, and fresh mango with big mango chunks. Yum!

Next was an outing to the beach, just about five minutes away by van. This is where D ran to every morning.

There were tons of smooth rocks.

Our celebration dinner was at Don Diego’s.

Shrimp with garlic butter

Fish-Vera Cruz style

Flan and pecan pie

On Saturday we were ready to go home just after 6 a.m. We had to make some extra stops, and it ended up taking us about ten hours, without a lunch break! I think we waited at the border about 1.5 hours.

Here are a couple of yogurt drinks we picked up for breakfast—mango and coffee.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It was nice to serve alongside D and my church family. This was my first mission trip since high school. It was inspiring to see families with older kids go together, and I hope that D and I can bring k and n someday.